Gerry Anderson Encyclopedia
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Professer Popkiss

Professor Rudolph Popkiss is one of the main characters of Supercar and, along with Dr Beaker, is its principle co-developer (see below).

He was voiced by George Murcell for season 1, and by Cyril Shaps for season 2.

Biography[]

Born 30th October, 1902 in Hungary, Rudolph's parents moved to Appenzell near the Austro-Swiss border when he was only a year old; it was there that his sister Heidi was born.

In his youth, he helped out a clockmaker by the name of Curt Gestler who taught him about delicate machinery.

In 1931, he graduated from Geneva University with degrees in Electronics, Aviation and Rocketry and set up his own research complex. So dedicated was he to his work, he never married or seemed to have a life away from his lab.

Unfortunately, due to lack of funding he had to shut down his laboratory, and in 1929 he went to the USA to build a new laboratory in the Nevada Desert at Black Rock.

The US Government consulted him frequently and he was able to help them in the war effort, although he refused to help out with the Manhattan Project (to build an [atomic] bomb).

After the war, he started to teach at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It was there, during a debate with some English academics, that he met and befriended Dr. Horatio Beaker; and in 1955, he joined Popkiss in Nevada, where they worked together in building Supercar.

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